The Western Lark Sparrow 



to forego a picture of the 

 sitting bird. To get a 

 picture of the eggs (see 

 page 237), I was obliged 

 to hack away the pro- 

 tecting brush, having 

 first slipped in a hand- 

 kerchief to protect the 

 nest and contents from 

 showering debris. 



In the Shandon 

 country, where Western 

 Lark Sparrows abound, 

 nesting is oftenest un- 

 dertaken on the ground, 

 either with or without 

 the protection of a bush 

 or a lupine clump. But 

 in the vicinity of Santa 

 Barbara, where the bird 

 is also not uncommon, 

 although very irregular- 

 ly distributed, the nests 

 are oftener taken up into 

 trees at moderate heights, 

 ingly improved. 



"INTRICATELY SCROLLED ABOUT THE LARGER END" 



TYPE FROM M. C. O. COLLECTION. X 4 



The construction in such case is correspond- 

 A sturdy basket of twigs, weed-stems, roots and twisted 

 grasses, is beautifully lined with horsehair (what will the birds do when 

 horses become extinct?). The eggs, four or five in number, white as to 

 ground color, and purplish black or sepia as to markings, are among the 

 most varied and easily the most interesting of the sparrow tribe — at 

 least in California. The markings of sepia are often intricately scrolled 

 about the larger end ; and at their best the eggs are not exceeded in beauty 

 even by those of the oriole. One specimen before me has twenty-two 

 interwoven lines of color in the space of one-fifth of an inch. Another 

 has discontinuous lines and flecks, like the colored lint-marks in a bank- 

 note. Indeed, I am inclined to think that the Bureau of Printing and 

 Engraving got the idea from a Lark Sparrow's egg. Other eggs again, 

 some few, are as plainly and sparsely marked and spotted as the egg of 

 a Brown Towhee (Pipilo crissalis). Oriole he is not, not even remotely; 

 but how did our Lark Sparrow hit upon the decorative scheme pre- 

 empted — patented, I had almost said — by the Bullock Oriole? Here is 

 a nut for oologists to crack. 



240 



